Zou Tao, an ex-soldier of the PLA, an ordinary golf equipment dealer, is now one of the most famous men across the nation. After his infamous “Don’t Buy Houses for 3 Years” campaign started 2 years ago, he and his team are again in the center of debate for the Housing Wholesale Platform, through which more than 30,000 prospect home buyers are negotiating deals with developers in Shenzhen with the help of Zou Tao. Some of the final prices are unbelievable low compared with regular market quotes according to Zou Tao. But he refused to disclose the actual number for one of the developers was so mad at him because the developer was buried with previous customers’ complaints after Zou Tao released his real floor price to the public some time ago.
Housing price across the nation gone wild in the past several years, especially in 2006 and early 2007 when the Olympics concept was being used by nearly all developers as a marketing hype. Lots of the rich coal mine owners in Shanxi province and business owners in Wenzhou, as well as average middle-class commuters in the major cities had joined the army of house buying in hope of getting huge returns (that’s when the bubbles were created). Some did get rich over night, but some also broke when the prices were too high and no one was willing to become the next victim.
Thanks to Zou Tao’s campaign, housing price in Shenzhen dropped around 40% from the record high in July 2007. The other major cities like Wuhan, Chongqing, and Shanghai soon followed. The last holding place of the developers, Beijing, is also giving up.
But surprisingly, still 1 year before his “3 Years” campaign ends, Zou is now calling home buyers to unite and negotiate deals with the developers. Although Zou insists that the 2 campaigns share the same goal of helping home buyers to get the real value for their investments, some ridicules him for being capricious and suspects him taking money from the “dying” developers.
In the world of recession and the era of decline, not a single type of investment can guarantee return. Houses, gold, expensive collectibles, paintings, and the used to be super hot and mysterious Puerh Tea and the Tibetan Caterpillar Fungus, everything is dropping in price and value. The mankind is now paying back for their greed.
Nomatter if Zou has really got some hidden motives, what he’s doing is definitely beneficial for the low-earning mass including me who are dying for an apartment of their own (if you come from other cities and don’t have your own housing in Beijing, you are being viewed as one of the “floating population” that receive special care from the police). We already have too many scammers around us, like the greedy developers, what harm does it make if there’s one more, especially when he has got the potential to be a real hero?
